On Being Different

I was having breakfast with a few close friends and fellow organization consultants earlier today, and we came around to talking about how it is that we do what we do.

One of us talked about the importance of reframing client situations.  Showing the power and impact of transforming a negative event into a real opportunity.  This is more than just saying the words (which is such a cliche these days).  It involves asking good questions, being open to the answers that come, and being ready to shift your perspective and mindset based on what you hear.

In another case, we confirmed what it means to develop a clear agreement with a client about the work you will be doing and how you will be doing it together.  Failing to do that writes a recipe for conflict and disagreement down the road.  Creating this contract is hard to do in the best of circumstances and way more so when internal conflict is deeply embedded -- when argumentation and disagreement are viewed as part of “the way things are around here.”

A third person recounted her experiences with setting boundaries with her clients and then sticking to them, no matter what.  As she has become clearer on where these boundaries are and more confident in sharing them, she has found that it places her in higher demand with these same clients.

Reflecting on these stories, it occurred to me that we were all talking about the same thing:  that we are hired and valued by our clients when we bring them something different; when we are something other than what they currently experience on a regular basis.  Indeed, that defines the fundamental reason why they hire us in the first place.

This difference can take many shapes and come in many sizes.  Often, we are asked to bring a particular technical expertise.  More subtly, we are brought in because we have a different attitude, perspective, or presence that can jar people out of their complacency.

This has implications on both sides of the consulting relationship.  If you are one who hires consultants, you are looking for something you don’t already have.  Even if it is something you want, it still represents a change.  Consequently, you are going to resist what the consultant offers, even as you pay for it.  

If you are the consultant, prepare yourself for this eventual resistance, and try not to take it personally.  Develop client-specific strategies that will allow you to help them through it.  You both will be better off.

Tracking Team Performance

How do you know you’ve been successful, that your team has been effective?  Ask an athlete.  The first thing any of them will tell you is that if they’ve won they’ve been successful.  How effective they are shows up in the box score and win-loss columns every day.  

So how do we define winning in our (usually) more benign organizational contexts?  Ask whether your clients are happy.  Did you meet, or even exceed, their expectations?  If the answer to that is “yes”, then that’s the same as winning the big game.

The second thing you’ll hear is that the team got better.  There was an increase in capability.  The team is moving up in the standings.  Or maybe a dynasty is forming.  The teams that are truly effective find ways to sustain and improve their high performance.

At our workplaces, effective teams find new ways to delight their clients.  They develop new products and services or better ways to deliver the old ones.

And finally, individual team members learn, grow, and find satisfaction in the work of the team.  After all, if there’s nothing in all this for me, why would I stick around?

The very best, highest performing teams hit on all these measures of effectiveness consistently.  The good ones get it right on at least a couple of them most of the time.  The bad ones, well…. Where is your team?

(Source: Richard Hackman, Leading Teams (2002))

In the coming days, we’ll look at some of the things you can do to help your team hit these measures more consistently.

Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child

When I was in high school English class, I learned that as a literary device children are truth-tellers (drunks, too, but that will have to be for another time…).  That meant whenever a child spoke, you could count on whatever came out as being the real story.

Here at the beach on vacation with my family, our big activity is reading, and I just finished Emma Donoghue’s best-selling novel, Room.  It is a most remarkable story of an absolutely horrific situation told entirely through the eyes of a five year old boy.

Beyond the obvious social and psychological implications of this book, there is the boy himself, Jack, an innocent who is really anything but.

What is it that makes Jack so compelling, and so relevant?  It is a short list of characteristics that we pursue all the time: clarity, curiosity, and being totally present.

Jack was all about the integration of these three simple characteristics:  

• He was always tuned in to what was happening in the current moment and asking if it made sense (being present).  Trying to discover the meaning.  
• If the meaning was not immediately apparent, he looked elsewhere for it (curiosity).  
• And then, if he was frustrated in his search, he figured out how to carry on anyway (clarity).

How many misunderstandings have you been part of where the central issue had to do with “lack of clarity”?  And how often do these situations result from paying attention to something other than that which you needed to pay attention to?

Our lives are so complex with so many important things demanding our focus that it becomes easy to lose sight of what is right in front of us.  Somehow, because it is right-here-right-now, it becomes easy to overlook.

The next time you find yourself struggling with an apparent lack of clarity, frustrated because the situation is turning out to be something other than what you intended, look closely at your circumstances and ask whether you are really paying attention to what is most present, most meaningful for you right now.

Creating Impact: Making It Stick

Continuing our ongoing conversation about leading change ...

Once you have established some sense of shared meaning (see earlier post here), and then clarified the future you want to create (earlier post here), the final phase in the cycle can be the most challenging: how do you get the new thing to stick?

What do you need to do, right now, to make the change that is required?

Is that enough?

People are notoriously fickle creatures.  Despite all their good intentions, breaking comfortable habits is a very hard thing for them to do.  

This is only compounded by the fact that you can’t MAKE anyone do anything.  (Granted, you can threaten people into submission.  However, I think we can all agree that weak compliance like that is no way to run a railroad.)  People have to want to change.  

Fortunately, there are a couple of ways you can encourage this wanting.  

The first is to hold conversations of accountability.  The questions above are a start to that.  They get individuals and the team to make (in public) the tough promises that are needed to start them moving toward the future you have agreed is the desirable one.

The second way is to create the conditions for success.  Make it possible for your people to make different choices, and provide rewards when they make choices that fit with the new situation.

What kind of rewards?  It depends on the circumstances and on your people.  The biggest, most important part of managing anyone -- employees, team mates, your kids, the dog -- is knowing what makes them tick.  How do you figure that out?  Pay attention to them.  Ask them about it.

What will help you sustain the change?

How will you assess your progress?

Remember, this is a cyclical process.  As you reach the end of this stage, it is time to notice what you have created by asking: “What (or where) is the new tension?” 

And the whole process begins again.

Staying in the Moment

How many of you are old enough to remember this classic line from the not-so-classic 1976 movie “The Gumball Rally”?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjGXn249Fc0

Perhaps it is too much of a stretch to turn Franco’s (played by a youthful Raul Julia) flamboyant utterance into a philosophy for living and working, but through a certain lens ….

I hear the line as a call to be present, to stay in-the-moment with what is happening right now.  If you’re wondering about what could have, should have, or might have been, you are somewhere other than right here.

In most of the organizations I work with, too much time is spent unproductively looking at the past, trying to assess blame for something that has not turned out exactly as planned.

If there has been a mistake that merits some focus, far better to ask “What needs to be different in order for this not to happen again?”

I’ll grant you, sometimes the past (“what’s behind me”) IS important.  After all, that’s what makes each of us who we are.  It is the target for reflection and learning.  And what about the famous adage that those who don’t know their past are condemned to repeat it?

All very good points.

BUT, the past is valuable only insofar as it helps us understand our present moment and informs the decisions we make about the future we want to create.

That’s very different from looking in the rear view mirror all the time, worried about who (or what) is coming up behind us.